Hinge type drop-leaf support



Sept. 1, 1959 H. ZIMMERMAN HINGE TYPE DROP-LEAF SUPPORT Filed March '7. 1958 United States Patent O HINGE TYPE DROP-LEAF SUPPORT Harvey Zimmerman, Plainview, N.Y.

Application March 7, 1958, Serial No. 719,859

4 Claims. (Cl. 311-64) This invention relates to the art of drop-leaf supports and more particularly to a support of the above type that also serves as a hinge.

As conducive to an understanding of the invention, it is noted that where a conventional spring-urged snap action locking bar is used with the drop-leaf of a conventional coffee table, for example, and in addition to the locking bar, two hinges are provided to mount the leaf to the table, the cost of the hardware is necessarily increased over an installation having a lesser number of components.

In addition, where a snap action locking bar is used and to drop the leaf it is necessary to reach thereunder and press down on the locking bar to break the latter for closing thereof, the fingers of the user may be caught between the elements of the locking bar with resultant injury.

It is accordingly among the objects of the invention to provide a drop-leaf support that may readily be fabricated from inexpensive materials at relatively low cost and which will provide a iirm support for the leaf when in open position without possibility of collapse thereof and may readily be released to drop the leaf without likelihood of injury to the user, which support may readily be mounted on a table to support the leaf in open position and will replace one of the hinges normally required to support said leaf.

According to the invention these objects are accomplished in the manner hereinafter described and particularly recited in the claims.

In the accompanying drawings in which is shown one or more of various possible embodiments of the several features of the invention,

Fig. l is a side elevational view of a conventional dropleaf table having the drop-leaf support,

Fig. 2 is a top plan View thereof,

Fig. 3 is a side elevational view of the support on an enlarged scale,

Fig. 4 is a detail view of' one end of the locking link, and

Fig. 5 is a detail view taken along line 5-5 of Fig. 3.

Referring now to the drawings, the drop-leaf table may be of conventional type having a substantially rectangular top 12 and depending legs 13, the periphery 14 of said top 12 extending laterally beyond the legs 13, as shown in Fig. l.

Associated with each of two opposed edges of the table top 12 is a drop-leaf 15 which also is substantially rectangular, as shown, and illustratively extends the width of the table top 12.

Means are provided pivotally to mount the drop-leaf 15 to the table top. To this end, as shown in Fig. l, a support 16 is provided which desirably comprises a pair of plates 21 and 22 hinged together as at 23, one of said plates, i.e., plate 2l being of greater length than plate 22.

The plates 21 and 22 are secured respectively as by screws 24 to the undersurface of the periphery of the table top 12 and to the undersurface of leaf 15 so that ICC the hinged connection 23 will extend parallel to the adjacent edges 25, 26 of the table top and the leaf.

Desirably the plates 21, 22 are positioned adjacent one of the side edges 27 of the table top, and a conventional hinge 28 is secured to the leaf 15 and the table top 12 adjacent the side edge 29 of the latter.

The plate 22 has a depending leg 31 positioned inwardly of one of the side edges thereof, to which is pivotally mounted a detent 33. As shown in Fig. 3, the detent is pivotally mounted at its mid section, as at 34, to the lower end of said leg 31 and its end 35 is adapted to abut against the undersurface of plate 22 to limit the counterclockwise rotation of said detent about its pivot 34. Desirably the detent is normally urged in a counterclockwise direction by means of a coil spring 35 encompassing the pivot 34 Which has its ends reacting against the leg 31 and the detent 33, respectively.

Pivoted as at 36 to the end 37 of detent 33 is the end 33 of an elongated link 39 which extends beneath the plate 21 at right angles to the hinge connection 23.

The end portion 41 of link 39 has an elongated slot 42 therethrough and a rivet 43 extending through said slot is carried by the lower end of a leg 44 depending from plate 21, slidably to mount said link.

As shown in Fig. 4, the outer end of slot 42 has -a locking slot 45 rising therefrom at substantially right angles thereto, the inner wall 46 of slot 43 illustratively being concave to receive the rivet 43.

To facilitate release of the support, a finger 47 extends laterally outward from the lower edge 48 of link 39 substantially midway between the ends thereof.

To release the leaf 15, the nger 47 on link 39 need merely be pressed upwardly. As a result, the link 39 will be correspondingly raised and as the end 38 of the link will pivot about rivet 43, it will cause the detent 33 to be pivoted in a clockwise direction about its pivot 34 against the tensed coil spring 35.

In addition, the upward movement of the link 39 will cause the outer end of slot 42 to be aligned with the rivet 43, as shown in broken lines in Fig. 4.

When the pivot 36 has been moved in a clockwise direction past a horizontal plane extending through pivot 34, since at this time the end of slot 42 is aligned with the rivet 43 there is nothing to restrain downward movement of the leaf 15 about hinge 23, the weight of the leaf overcoming the force of the coil spring 35 so that with the leaf in its downward position, the end 35 of detent 33 will be spaced from the plate 22.

To lock the leaf in horizontal position, it is merely necessary to lift up the outer edge of leaf 15 to raise the latter. As the leaf is raised, when the rivet 43 moves to the end of slot 42, due to the weight of the link 39, it will rotate slightly about its pivot 36 so that the rivet 43 will be aligned with the concave portion 45 of slot 45. At this time the coil spring 35 will have rotated the detent 33 so that its end 35 is against the plate 22 and when the leaf is then released, the rivet 43 will be wedged against the concave portion 46 of slot 43 and as the detent 33 is restrained from pivotal movement by reason of the abutment of end 35 thereof against plate 22, the leaf will be rigidly supported in horizontal position.

With the construction above described, the leaf may be dependably retained in horizontal locked position and readily released without likelihood of injury to the fingers. By reason of the simplicity of the support, it may be readily fabricated from inexpensive materials, and as it includes a hinged connection, it eliminates one of the hinges normally used to mount the leaf.

As many changes could be made in the above construction and many apparently Widely different embodiments of this invention could be made without departing from the scope of the claims, it is intended that all matter contained in the above description, or shown in the accompanying drawings, shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

1. A drop-leaf support comprising a pair of hinged plates adapted to be positioned in a horizontal plane when the support is in locked position, an armk depending from one of said plates at right angles thereto, a detent pivotally mounted between its ends to the lower end of said arm on an axis below that of the hinge connection and parallel thereto, one end of said detent being adapted to abut against the undersurface of said plate tolimit the pivotal movement of said detent, said detent normally engaging said plate when the support is in locked position, a coil spring associated with the pivotal connection of said detent to said arm and reacting against said detent normally to urge one end thereof against the undersurface of said plate, a link pivoted at one end to the other end of said detent and extending beneath the other of said plates and at right angles to the axis of said hinge connection, said link having an elongated track extending substantially longitudinally thereof and a locking conformation at the outer end of said track, and means carried by said other plate coacting with said track and said locking conformation, said means being located in said locking conformation when the rst named endl of said detent engages the undersurface of said plate and said plates are in horizontal position.

2. A drop-leaf support comprising a pair of hinged plates adapted to be positioned in a horizontal plane when the support is in locked position, a detent pivotally mounted between its ends on one of the plates on an axis below that of the hinge connection and parallel thereto, means to limit the pivotal movement of said detent, said detent normally engaging said means when the support is in locked position, a link pivoted at one end to one of the ends of the detent and extending beneath the other of said plates and at right angles to the axis of said hinge connection, said link having an elongated slot extending substantially longitudinally thereof from its other end and delining a track and a locking conformation at the outer end of said track, said locking conformation comprising a slot rising from the outer end of the first slot at substantially right angles thereto and incommunication therewith, and a pin carried by said other plate extending transversely through said slot and coact'ing with said locking conformation slot, said pin being located in said locking conformation slot when the detent engages said limiting means and said plates are in horizontal position.

3. The combination set forth in claim 2 in which an arm depends from said other plate at right angles thereto, and said last named means comprises a rivet extending through the lower end of said arm and through said slots.

4. The combination set forth in claim 3 in which the locking slot is curved on the inner surface thereof and they rivet is adapted to seat against said curved surface whenv the support 'is` in locked position.

References Cited in the le of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 199,150 Flather Ian. 15, 1878 264,049 Tucker Sept. 6, 1882 734,757 Schuehle et al July 28, 1903 1,902,175 Lue Mar. 21, 1933 1,963,721 smith June 19, 1934 2,634,180 Krueger Apr. 7, 1953 2,686,332 Tull et al. Aug. 17, 11954 2,782,086 Gaston Feb. 19, 1957 2,809,874 Johnson Oct. 15,l 1957 2,815,529 Herbolscheimer et al. Dec. 10, 1957 

